Direct Part Marking (DPM) technology is used to provide a machine readable code that is a permanent marking of the material of a part or component. This may be accomplished, for example, through dot-peen marking. In dot peen marking, a hard pin (e.g., carbide or diamond tip assembly) is caused to strike the surface of a part to form a pattern of dots that create a permanent mark. Dot peen marking machines can use an electromechanical or pneumatically driven marking pin to stamp (or peen) a series of dots to form the desired marking that may represent, for example, a bar code or quick response (QR) code, text, logos, or 2D Data Matrix codes.
Codes such as QR codes can be used to permanently mark a part or product, but conventional image acquisition and decoding systems designed to read higher resolution inked codes may have difficulty correctly reading the codes generated using dot peen technology. Therefore, a need exists for improvements in the technology for reading dot peened DPM.